Celebrities wearing cool trainers might not come as much of a surprise.  What’s more interesting is Adidas’ public position on sustainability and how its products are now made. Through a partnership with environmental organisation, Parley for the Oceans – which dates back to 2015 – the business uses plastic collected from the sea to make some footwear, clothing and accessories. In 2022, close to 27 million shoes were made from the stuff, with Adidas also announcing it will only use recycled polyester across the board from 2024.

This idea of being creative, recycling and reusing – rather than making brand new – should set an example and be copied by the IT industry.

Take end user computing (EUC). It has become a major contributor to environmental pollution and climate change, directly and indirectly causing around 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions. 1% of this is due to the yearly manufacture of 460 million devices and the associated energy consumption by 4.2 billion users. This emits a whopping 556 million tons of CO2 and would require a forest the size of Argentina to remove from Earth’s atmosphere annually. A further 1% is attributed to the pollution associated with people commuting to access IT in the workplace.[1]

Other stats support this bleak picture. According to the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management, the UK produced the second largest amount of e-waste as a country in 2022 at 23.9 kg per capita. The study also showed that IT and telecoms e-waste almost doubled between 2008 (19,053 tonnes) to 2022 (37,631 tonnes estimated).

Displacement saves resources, money and the environment

We’re drowning in a tsunami of e-waste. One of the reasons for this is the technology refresh hamster wheel of upgrades which has become commonplace in the public and private sector. Most PCs or laptops are updated every 3 to 4 years as they break or OS vendors introduce major new releases requiring updated hardware to run.

Repurposing device hardware – a so-called displacement strategy – is a tried and tested way of avoiding this and has been at the heart of IGEL’s EUC strategy since 2011.

This approach extends the existing device’s useful lifespan and consequently causes the emissions of replacement devices – both from a manufacturing and shipping perspective – not to be required.  This is key given 83% of a device’s carbon footprint is created during manufacture.

This gains added impetus given the UK’s Climate Change Act 2008 includes an amendment to the Companies Act 2006 requiring all London Stock Exchange listed companies, large unquoted firms and limited liability partnerships to report their greenhouse gas emissions. Public sector organisations are also required to adopt sustainable IT practices in relation to Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions.

Sadly, inertia exists.  Many IT departments simply do not know enough about sustainable ICT  purchasing or think that it requires more money to achieve, such research reveals that over a third simply take no action[2].  This is not only a dreadful for the environment but presents a significant missed opportunity for organisations to play a more effective role to address the climate emergency.

Mini case study: greenhouse gas abatement at a major UK financial institution 

Some firms, however, have grappled with the whole issue of how to consume IT in an environmentally optimum way. IT carbon footprint consultancy, PX³, has independently analyzed in detail an IGEL project at a well-known UK financial institution, the details and benefits of which are summarized below.

To enable work from home during the Covid crisis in 2020, the company faced the problem of how to provide secure remote working for 3,150 staff or 86% of employees. It had the choice of whether to buy new HP T640 thin client hardware and recycle old Dell OptiPlex 7010 desktops or repurpose the PCs replacing Windows 7 Pro with IGEL OS, thereby turning them into thin client devices.

The customer chose to repurpose each PC, and combined with an existing 24” monitor, mouse and keyboard, created an ‘office in a box’ which was delivered to staff at home. They then connected to a Citrix VDI environment to access their applications.

The costs and impact of buying new

If HP T640 thin clients had been used, the PX³ analysis shows that new hardware over a 5-year period would have generated 425,983 kg of CO2e. This comprises Scope 2 emissions for the duration, Scope 3 emissions for year 1 – the delivery of new devices – and then the recycling of these units at the end.  In more simple terms, the emissions are equivalent to 1,543,640 car miles and would have required 511 of mature forest to sequester the pollution.

From a cost perspective, given each HP device is circa £300, the cost to replace the estate of 3,150, would have totalled £945,000. Electricity charges over the period for all devices – based on an average price of £0.172 per kWh – are £47,462.  In summary, a total cost of ownership (TCO) of £992,462.

Repurposing the old – a better way

As the Dell OptiPlex 7010 PCs already existed, the reported Scope 3 emissions of 218 kgCO2e per device were already accounted for, such that retaining them added zero emissions.

Running the existing PCs with new IGEL OS installed and measuring energy consumption showed a 22% decrease in power compared to Windows 7 Pro.  Therefore, over the 5-year lifecycle extension period, the total carbon consumed by the Dell PCs totalled 169,945 kg of CO2e (Scope 2) and 0 kg of CO2e related to Scope 3. Again, in more simple terms, the emissions equate to 615,832 car miles or 204 of mature forest to sequester the pollution.

Turning to money, no purchase value is applied to existing Dell OptiPlex 7010 computers as they were accounted for in year one of purchase. However, buying 3,150 IGEL OS perpetual licenses cost £315,000.

Additionally, the utility charges for the same period were £137,644 for the Dell PCs based upon the same per kWh pricing of £0.172. This means a TCO attributed to the displacement strategy of £452,644.

 The financial and environmental payoff

 There’s a lot of data in this blog post. But to boil it down, a displacement strategy is clearly better, delivering:

 60% reduction in carbon footprint across a 5-year period by repurposing devices;

• Potential combined Scope 2 and 3 emissions dropping from 425,983 kgCO2e to 169,945 kgCO2e – equivalent to avoiding 927,808 car miles or the sequestering capacity of 307 forest acres.
• 55% drop in project costs from £992,462 to £452,644 over the 5-year period meaning the company saved an impressive £539,818.

Even with IGEL OS demanding less power than Windows, the analysis shows that energy consumption of the existing old Dell devices was 65% higher than the replacement HP thin clients.

However, the impact of the manufacturing emissions far outweighs the energy emissions gain from buying new; it would take an additional 17 years for this cross over to happen, by which time the Dell PCs would be practically prehistoric and definitely need recycling.

The knee jerk position in many IT departments is to throw away and buy new – just like a pair of trainers. It’s not necessary. We can reuse, reimagine and recycle hardware – easily doubling lifespan – by running applications, storage and compute in the cloud and not on the endpoint. That means the requirement to have the latest and greatest desktop is removed with only a lightweight OS which we provide needed to connect to modern VDI or DaaS workspaces from the likes of Microsoft, Amazon, Citrix and VMware.

And on top of this, the IGEL UMS management platform means one person can simply manage circa 20,000 devices from a single location resulting in fewer support engineers driving to site to do break/fix and therefore polluting less.  Which leads me back to the beginning theme of this blog and Run DMC loving Adidas.  IT staff should Run UMS. They’ll love IGEL, too.

To read the full report PX³ click here.

[1]Source: Dr. Justin Sutton-Parker, CEO of PX³ and a Research Fellow at the University of Warwick

[2]Source: Sutton-Parker

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The U.S. Chamber of Commerce lists digital literacy and data literacy as among the top 10 in-demand job skills over the next 10 years, with IT growth estimated at 0.6% growth. What that tells you is hiring will be flat and enterprises will be making exceedingly careful, strategic hires. They will be looking to continue cost efficiencies, further automate more routine processes and dedicate IT time to AI functionality, improving CX experience and moving ahead on their cloud journey. In this environment, looking ahead to 2024, enterprises will want endpoint management to require minimal IT time, as IT focuses on cloud computing, AI, application development and other value-added tasks.

In EMEA 2024 looks to be similar with enterprises wanting to find efficiencies in IT budgets and further liberate IT from day-to-day processes like endpoint management. None of this is surprising to IGEL. We live and breathe virtualization and endpoint management every day and deliver an endpoint platform that enables IT to quickly and easily control, manage and secure remote endpoints. At the heart of our platform is IGEL OS which has been and will continue to be the solution to a streamlined, secure, efficient way to deliver data to our hybrid workforce generation.

“Mobilizing” the Desktop

In the hybrid work environment, 2024 will be a great time to evolve the concept of the desktop to thinking of it as more like a mobile device – regardless of what you’re using and where you are, you can have access to the data and applications you need, much of which is delivered from the cloud.  When you’re in an airport lounge using your mobile device to do some work, you’re not normally engaging IT.  This flexible, independent way to work – the ideal digital experience – is how we should be thinking in 2024 and beyond, and especially for our desktops.

How do we ‘mobilize’ our desktops? Well, it’s not just about buying laptops. First and foremost is separating the device and OS from the applications and placing as many applications as possible in the cloud, either via DaaS or moving them to SaaS. This move enables a secure environment, where applications and data are no longer on the device – meaning the enterprise is less prone to risk. Whether you use an iOS or Android, you can easily retrieve your applications – no handholding from IT necessary. Desktops must mirror this, acting as mobile endpoints and requiring little IT support due to having an endpoint management platform that enables approved users to get what they need, when they need it. Part of this environment is a stellar threat defense with user access control through policy enforcement, multi-factor authentication, and single sign-on, all requiring minimal IT time.

Another aspect of endpoint freedom is, that by separating OS from applications, security patching, backend updates, and other updates can be done automatically in the cloud, saving considerable IT time and costs.

Freeing IT from the Endpoint

Besides automated updates and patching, IT staff needs an endpoint management system that is organized, unified, and does not add needless complexity. In IGEL’s case we have been providing our management platform – the latest release being UMS 12 – upgraded and user friendly, enabling IT to deliver secure workspaces and access to applications, wherever they are, on any endpoint device.

As 2024 fast approaches, we at IGEL are committed to helping enterprises make the best use of their valued IT teams, moving the focus from the traditional desktop, to a more mobile like, cloud driven endpoint and providing the tools to spend less time on endpoint management and more on CX and business value.

Contact us and let’s see how we can help you benefit from the best endpoint solutions-in 2024.

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The principle of ‘waste not, want not’ was first declared 300 years ago. It is a reasonable idea, to avoid wasteful use of resources and provide for a more secure future. However, the principle has lost ground; the IT environment being one example. A spending study by Flexera reports underutilization or wasted IT spending of 36 percent for desktop software, 33 percent for data center software, 32 percent for SaaS and 32 percent for IaaS/PaaS.

The study confirms that enterprises continue to spend needless dollars and use precious IT time, loading up their hardware endpoint devices with up to a dozen pieces of software – and required agents – before the end user can even work productively with the device. It also confirms some of this software spend never even makes it to the desktop.

Waste Not Your Software Spend

A good place to start leaning up IT’s approach to software investment is the OS. IGEL is passionate about telling enterprises that the best strategy is using an OS – preferably Linux – that can deliver only the apps a user needs – from the cloud. Rather than front load a bunch of software that may never be used, an OS designed for an economic need-only model, is the smarter choice.

To support this model IT needs to house data and applications in the cloud, separating them from endpoint devices. Leaning up the endpoint with IGEL OS can deliver a 90% reduction in footprint size compared to Windows since the data has been moved off the desktop to the cloud. That is a key pillar of IGEL strategy: using a secure OS that not only supports cost savings but reduces risk by taking critical data off the endpoint and further minimizing an attack surface.

Leaning up with Hardware Conservation

A leaner approach also applies to the hardware itself which has several key benefits:

• Taking applications off a hardware device and moving them to the cloud enables IT to use existing hardware as a much leaner, efficient endpoint platform. Application updates then occur in the cloud, with a faster, more accurate, and less energy-consuming process.
• Combined with a hardware-agnostic OS like IGEL, enterprises can execute Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) on Azure, saving money by extending the life of existing hardware and minimizing CAPEX.
• With a hardware-agnostic IGEL OS, enterprises can convert any x86, 64-bit device into a secure, standardized endpoint, supporting a seamless transition to any virtual workspace platform.

Flagging Underutilization

Through asset management platforms IT can audit, and track software license use to flag software and SaaS investments contributing to wasted spend. IGEL adds to these budget controls via its COSMOS IGEL License Portal (ILP), a cloud-based solution to manage IGEL licensing. Assigning, removing, moving, monitoring, and subscription administration are accessed via an intuitive interface and set as automatic or manual handling.

A Leaner Blueprint

As more workloads move to the cloud, and a hybrid/distributed workforce is the standard, the necessity of investing in costly hardware is diminishing even further. Rather than purchase hardware with little ROI, the lean smart approach is using a secure OS with the capability to deliver apps via the cloud and VDI platforms and to get tighter control of software and SaaS spend via asset management and better license usage administration. This combination will help reduce wasted spend and free up budget for tasks that can provide clear ROI.

Ready to see it for yourself? Get started today with a free trial and see how easy it is with IGEL OS. Or, for more information, listen in to our webinar “Reduce your Endpoint costs – save budget and the planet” by registering here. 

The post Digital Thinking: Work Leaner and Smarter at the Endpoint appeared first on IGEL.

This was a core topic at the annual EUC event, DISRUPT End User Computing Forum, which this year is being held as a road show in 21 cities across North America and Europe. The event brings together industry experts discussing the latest ways to deliver modern and secure workspaces for employees, including the use of virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) technologies.

Among the sessions is a panel discussion called “Think Tank: VDI & DaaS in a Hybrid World.” It features a roundtable between EUC leaders and experts from Microsoft, VMware, Nerdio and IGEL exploring the most important trends in VDI and DaaS in this new hybrid work era. Following are some of the top lessons learned as the panel discussed EUC industry trends, the impact of today’s employee work styles and key opportunities for the channel:

From Crisis Comes Opportunity

The saying goes, “From crisis, comes opportunity.” When exploring the rapid adoption and rising growth of the VDI and DaaS market in the last two years, the panelists shared some of the top ways this market acceleration was also surprising.

First among them is how VDI is now enabling more graphically intense use cases. Panelists agreed that while there has been tremendous growth in VDI and DaaS adoption as it enables organizations to deploy “work from anywhere,” there is a growth in use cases that weren’t typically considered for VDI technology – specifically those that are more graphically intense. Power on the back end and improvements to the protocols and on the endpoint, such as technology to allow video and audio communications to take place, are providing experiences that are better – even in high-performance computing environments where VDI hasn’t historically been embraced.

It’s also driving enhancements beyond VDI and DaaS into the virtual apps users rely on. This has had a dramatic impact on user experience in a short time. Many deployments set records, being rolled out in weeks, if not days, instead of months and years. In one example, a customer was able to spin up 30,000 VMware virtual desktops in days. This is a silver lining in the impact of the pandemic on workplace productivity and agility.

Employee Lifestyle as Important as Work Style

Panelists also highlighted how employees are driving a different type of work style when it comes to hybrid working. Members noted Gartner has posited that “employee segmentation models limited to work-specific contexts are unfit for the modern workplace. I&O leaders must deliver human-centric IT services by contextualizing employee lifestyles to maximize productivity, improve the digital employee experience, and identify security requirements.” Gartner goes on to cite that 75% of hybrid or remote workers say their expectations for working flexibly have grown. In response, panelists agreed that the industry needs to think about the experiences that technology can offer.

However, it was also pointed out that we can’t think about just the technology. The example offered was if you take someone who lives in the city, they might have just a desk with a computer and monitor. If we send them a whole kit of additional computer equipment, that doesn’t work for their lifestyle. And what about those generations of employees just entering the market? They’re “computer natives” who already have devices. EUC vendors need to take advantage of this new dynamic to give these users what they really want to support both their lifestyle as well as their work style.

On the other hand, the panel also explored how organizations are facing the challenge of people coming back to the office with a lot of talk about reduction of office space. Organizations want to bring people back to collaborate in shared meeting rooms and collaboration spaces. So, they need to think about how they can spin desktops up to support a more fluid office working model.

This doesn’t just apply to enterprises and midmarket companies. The panel participants shared that they are seeing smaller businesses going for virtualization technology, too. Small businesses, if they want to be competitive, must accommodate that flexibility just like their larger rivals. Windows 365, for example, is designed to be simple. By using it, companies don’t have to spin out a full environment, which is becoming a game changer for businesses both large and small.

Opportunities Ahead for Channel Partners and Customers

Overall, panelists agreed VDI and DaaS solutions are delivering options for partners and customers. The VDI market is made up of 15% of the overall corporate desktops worldwide, and that percentage is only going to grow. Partners and customers need to think about what the future will look like and have internal discussions on how to adapt to deliver on it.

Here are some insights into what trends and opportunities are ahead:

• Rise of services. From a broader trends’ perspective, the panelists also discussed the post-COVID 19 Great Resignation or Great Re-Shuffle. Recent data suggests that although more workers are quitting their jobs, they’re switching their occupation or field of work, rather than leaving the labor force altogether. This leads to a larger uptick in external-party services and bringing in people to backfill roles for up to 12 months. That lends itself to more flexible models for delivering EUC than having laptops on a shelf.
• SMBs gaining competitive footing. New opportunities are in store for SMBs as workforce agility expands their playing field. The adoption of DaaS is really accelerating in the SMB space and it’s a good opportunity for channel partners to address the range of different management styles for using DaaS solutions. Partners and customers need to think about what that means from a security and data-retention perspective with having user data stored in the cloud versus on each endpoint. They need to have the ability to secure sensitive data and make it easier for administrators to manage. Also, they need to think about technology that allows a “point in time” restore feature for users to easily fall back without having to manage or physically touch the endpoint.
• The new view on business continuity. As cyberthreats continue to be top of mind, the positioning of VDI and DaaS solutions as part of an overall business continuity and disaster recovery solution will begin to take stronger hold. Many organizations will look to VDI as a potential backup plan to ensure employees remain productive in the event of a cyberattack. The panelists shared how this business continuity use case has come up more recently because of the cyber activity that has resulted from the war in Ukraine.
• Breaking down the corporate hiring walls. One final additional macro trend this panel discussed is the global resource and staffing gap challenges organizations are facing, including the lack of workers across so many industries. It’s affecting everything. The flexibility delivered by DaaS and VDI is one way companies are finding to work around the employee resource and recruiting challenge as it enables greater freedom to hire, regardless of where workers are. This flexibility for many companies is changing the dynamics of their workforce and increasing employee loyalty and productivity.

Hearing the insights of these thought leaders, it’s clear that VDI and DaaS opportunities for the channel abound.

This article was written by Simon Townsend, Field CTO, EMEA, with IGEL, and first published in Channel Futures.

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A detailed study by RawWorks found that when accessing cloud-delivered digital workspaces, IGEL OS on endpoints offers superior performance when compared to Windows, providing a consistently ‘snappier’ user experience. Intensive video conferencing and graphics use, more important than ever in our consumer-driven culture of widely distributed users, are a more satisfying and streamlined experience using IGEL OS, the report notes.

IGEL OS Delivers a More Robust End-User Experience

RawWorks compared IGEL’s Linux-based edge operating OS for Cloud Workspaces with Windows, running all scenarios on Microsoft Azure in combination with Citrix Cloud. The scenarios were run on three thin client endpoint devices: the HP t640, DELL WYSE 5070, and LENOVO ThinkCentre M625Q.

They recorded people using these two operating system alternatives for Zoom and Teams, to watch videos and to use tools like PowerPoint. These videos were added to performance data and the conclusion is for all tested endpoints, IGEL OS outperforms Windows while delivering a similar or better user experience.

IGEL excelled in the four performance metrics:

• Endpoint CPU usage
• Frames per second (FPS)
• Round trip time (RTT)
• Bandwidth usage

IGEL is Faster and More Efficient

By using less CPU power for graphics and video production tasks, for example, IGEL runs faster and more efficiently. In some cases, the CPU usage when using Windows is more than three times higher than IGEL OS.

Since IGEL is all about delivering the best user experience (UX) at the endpoint, we are especially pleased that we had superior performance with less latency (lower RTT) and a smoother video experience (framerate). IGEL saves customers from suffering through latency during Zoom calls, or videos that are jerky due to poor support of 60 FPS framerate.

Users running a graphics-intensive presentation in PowerPoint on Dell, for example, also will enjoy a higher framerate with considerably lower CPU consumption.

Given that IGEL OS delivers superior endpoint performance that meets users’ demands for a seamless video conferencing and rich multimedia experience, why would anyone choose Windows OS to access their digital workspaces? From the RawWorks testing results, we think that is a very good question to contemplate.

View the complete RawWorks report.

*Less CPU usage with video conferencing

The post IGEL OS v. Windows OS for Digital Workspaces. The Verdict Is In! appeared first on IGEL.

Fortunately, you don’t have to look far! In fact, you likely already have what you need to deliver a high-performance, productive experience for your employees. Just add IGEL.

With IGEL, you can take any x86-64 device (including older devices running Windows 7) and turn them into secure, easy-to-manage endpoints.  IGEL OS allows employees to connect to Office 365, Azure Virtual Desktop, Citrix, VMware, Amazon workspaces, and a host of digital workspaces including Unified communication platforms like MS Teams and Zoom – all without limitations – or waiting for the chip shortage to subside to get your new laptop.

Now full estates of existing devices that were once thought to be aging or obsolete can be brought to life once again, without the time and frustration of a full procurement and forklift upgrade.

In fact, in a recent study by RawWorks, IGEL OS outperformed Windows on a number of new and old HP, Lenovo, and Dell devices, demonstrating lower usage of CPU, RAM, lower round trip times, and improved FPS.

Learn more about the global chip shortage in my recent interview with VMblog:

Then discover how IGEL is coming to the chip shortage rescue in this video.

The global chip shortage has been an IT wake-up call. There are more strategic ways to deliver the best end-user computing experience, without the wait.

Try IGEL for free today to discover what it can do for you.

The post Overcoming the Global Chip Shortage is Easy appeared first on IGEL.

Introducing Windows 365

Today at Microsoft Inspire, Microsoft finally announced Windows 365 – the formerly named and rumored Cloud PC or project Deschutes. Announced as part of the keynote and followed by a great video introduction from Scott Manchester, Windows 365 provides a SIMPLE, easy way for businesses to set up, deploy and manage virtualized Windows desktops (which run in the Microsoft cloud) allowing users to remotely connect to them from any device. While Microsoft already has a DaaS solution in Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD), the simplicity of Windows 365 is more of a SaaS solution allowing almost anyone to easily start a virtual Windows machine in the cloud and connect, all for a per-user subscription cost.

Included in the platform is some super SMART technology allowing image management, regional deployment and policies to be applied, again all from simple web-based UI which leverages Microsoft Endpoint Manager. The offering also includes insights and endpoint analytics allowing organizations visibility into performance and employee experience, even allowing the administrator to change the specification of a virtualized Windows desktop on the fly should a user need more CPU or RAM.

Lastly, Windows 365 continues to demonstrate that running machines from the cloud can help improve SECURITY, especially when people are working from anywhere. Running Windows remotely in the cloud means that no applications or data are downloaded to the endpoint. No more VPN connections from laptops or BYOD devices back to the office. Whether someone is in the office or at home, the desktop remains secure in the cloud.

Windows 11’s Focus on Simplicity and Ease of Use

Simple,smart and secure are also phrases that could be associated with the announcement of Windows 11. Ever since Microsoft announced that Windows 10 would be the last version of Windows, people have debated whether and when Windows 11 would arrive. Announced on June 24^th, with rumors of an October release, Windows 11 very clearly Is laser-focused on some key areas: primarily, simplicity and ease of use. Looking more like a Chrome or MAC OS, the user interface is more 2021 than previous versions and no doubt will appeal to the younger generations who have become accustomed to swiping and searching not using a traditional start menu. In fact, the whole UI is being updated for a fresher look with MS Team integration and far easier ways to find the applications and files you need. The consumerization of IT and the increased use of tablets and phones etc have led to a world where experience is king and Windows 11 is focused on keeping things simple…

Under the hood, security still plays an important role and with news that the TPM 2.0 chip will be required for Windows 11 this further enhances security. While this is a welcome addition, (who doesn’t want improved security?),  many have started to ask the question about older hardware not being able to run Windows 11 – especially important with the current chip shortage and increased attention on sustainability.

Across the release, Windows 11 does look and feel different and in time I am confident that the innovation engine in MS will include more smart features for the IT Pro and corporate employees, but at present, much of the “smart” seems to be focused on gaming and touch / tablet like features.

Work from Anywhere

It’s clear, from both Windows 365 and Windows 11 that Microsoft is supporting today’s new way of working – commonly known as Hyrbid working or work from anywhere. Employees, students and consumers demand a simple, easy to use, productive workspace experience.

In fact, we found this to be true earlier this year. In our survey from our annual DISRUPT event, 61% named user experience the most significant challenge they faced when shifting to a work-from-home model. That won’t change as users migrate back to the office or demand productive business app access from anywhere they want to work.

Windows 365 is ‘the one to watch’

I welcome the news and congratulate Microsoft on both Windows 11 and Windows 365, but for me, Windows 365 is the most interesting and game-changing news of recent weeks.

Windows 11 ultimately is still Windows.  With all its compelling new features, you can’t overlook the obvious: it still is Windows under the hood. And while having Windows on the endpoint is necessary for some business applications, it’s not the most efficient for most. It still needs to be patched, secured and managed. In 2021 we should be spending less time on endpoint management!  That’s why for business Microsoft will continue to show the value of Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) and after today, Microsoft 365. Both AVD and Windows 365 offer Windows in the cloud where it can be more easily managed, secured and protected. The perfect solution for working from anywhere and something Citrix, VMware and others have been delivering for over 20 years.

Windows in the cloud, people still need an endpoint

So what should you use at the edge when accessing AVD or Windows 365 – well, something that’s SIMPLE, SMART and SECURE…..Simple to deploy and easy for employees to use. Smart in how it connects to the cloud, supports Unified communications and can be installed on any device.  And super secure thanks to a read-only file system….

The Best of Both Worlds

Access a rich Windows desktop experience from either AVD or Windows 365 from a super-secure IGEL OS running on any device.

• IGEL OS + Windows 365 / AVD saves money. Ease the transition to AVD  or Windows 365 by minimizing capital expenditures and extending the life of existing hardware to postpone, in some cases for years, the cost and disruption of the dreaded PC hardware refresh. Running Windows 365 removes the worry of DaaS costs, and AVD can save on datacentre costs.
• IGEL OS + Windows 365 /AVD is simple. Easy to use, IGEL features no-touch deployment and drag-and-drop profiling that makes IT administration significantly less time-consuming. IGEL OS can also boot and configure itself via the cloud when rolling out new devices. In addition, Windows 365 and AVD is simple to set up and with Windows 365, even your users can manage their own cloud PC.
• IGEL OS + Windows 365 /AVD is secure – Data, apps and desktops in the cloud are far easier to secure with Windows 365 and AVD. Coupled with the read-only IGEL OS (which runs on Linux), and IGEL’s “Chain of Trust,” users can have the most secure workspace delivered to any device, anywhere

To find out more at www.igel.com/whyIGEL or test drive today www.igel.com/download

Windows 365 is due for release on August 2nd

The post Simple, Smart and Secure – Windows 365 and Windows 11 appeared first on IGEL.

Earlier this year, during our annual DISRUPT event, we had the opportunity to dig deeper into the issues and challenges IT faced during the onset of the global pandemic. Most specifically, we looked into how end user computing (EUC) professionals addressed the immediate need to move workers from the office to home with record speed.

Based on survey responses from 269 end user computing (EUC) professionals across North America and EMEA, 61% named user experience the most significant challenge they faced when shifting to a work-from-home model. While being the number one issue across all regions, the challenge was more prevalent in North America (66%) than EMEA (52%).

This finding was notable, considering the significance of the other challenges we ranked, including issues around security and VPNs as well as help desk impact and policy control. The takeaway? EUC professionals know that if user experience isn’t optimal, the productivity and performance of the company can suffer.

Security Still Critical Concern

Even while user experience ranked the highest, it’s still notable to see that nearly half (47%) of EUC professionals ranked endpoint security a top challenge. Combine this with other related security issues including policy control (43%), VPN issues (42%) and unpatched devices accessing the network (21%), one could argue that concerns around security, together, do claim the top spot.

What is the EUC professional’s biggest concern when it comes to security? That they can’t effectively manage remote software, OS upgrades and patching for their remote systems (34%). Fear of ransomware attacks (24%) and accidental data loss (22%) were also notable. This shows that, while the concerns may vary, fear of limited protection for remote workers and their devices from unwanted intrusion is high.

Need for a Better User Experience and Security Drives VDI Adoption

With user experience and security so top of mind, it’s not a surprise that EUC professionals, to address these needs, named virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) as a top consideration for adoption (58%) following the pandemic. This was a much more heightened consideration in North America (65%) than EMEA (25%).

Other significant technologies being considered following the pandemic are the adoption of cloud workspaces and desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) (44%), centralized endpoint management (38%) and moving Windows to the cloud and off the desktop (30%). Each of these solutions puts control back into the hands of IT for greater security and policy management, while further empowering remote users with the data and application access they need for high productivity.

Enabling technologies, including the adoption of a non-Windows based endpoint OS and the conversion of user devices into cloud-enabled endpoints also ranked as desired post-pandemic technologies, 24% and 23% respectively. As solutions to enable VDI, DaaS and the move of Windows to the cloud, these additional selections show that EUC professionals are not only looking at the future of their user workspace architecture, but how they will improve deployment speed for that architecture, while lowering costs.

Persistence of Work from Home Drives New Endpoint Priorities

Among the EUC professionals responding to our survey, one additional factor remained perfectly clear: employees will continue to work remote, long after the pandemic subsides. In fact, during the pandemic, 75% of respondents reported the more than 50% of their employees were working from home. Once the effects of the pandemic are over, as many as 39% expect more than 50% of their employees to continue working from home.

What does this mean for future EUC technology priorities? Respondents still prioritized end user experience, stating that employee experience management (EEM – 58%) technologies would become their top priority over the next 12 months. Driven by the need for increased security and a lighter IT resource load, identity and access management (IAM – 52%) and modern unified endpoint management (MUEM – 45%) were also in the top three.

Ultimately, the global pandemic has given EUC professionals a lot to deal with, in very fast order. This has accelerated many of the trends and technologies that may have already been in discussion, including VDI, DaaS and cloud workspaces. But what may not have been as anticipated is just how important a delightful user experience is to ensure business continuity and productivity.

Moving forward, close attention to the needs of users, along with ensuring security and simplified management for IT, will remain more important than ever. As we push beyond the effect of COVID-19 on the workplace, a heightened understanding of the challenges and needs to empower users to work remotely will remain. The silver lining may just be that we are more ready than ever to enable an agile work model, come what may.

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The concept of thin client computing grew up alongside the growth of Terminal Services and Citrix Server-based computing in the 2000’s, but the concept dates back decades when people accessed centralized application mainframes using dumb terminals.

Thin clients have always been seen as an inexpensive, cost-efficient way to harness the emerging power of remote desktops delivered from data centers or the cloud. Even skinnier, leaner versions of thin clients called zero clients became popular throughout the 2000’s as people tried to drive the cost of endpoints down.

Now, almost 30 years later, little has changed. Lean computing tech is used across a wide variety of industries and for a virtual concert of reasons. Companies continue to employ thin clients in an effort to save money, bolster the security of sensitive, internal information, and maintain a relatively high level of agility in the face of a rapidly changing economy.

Shouldn’t thin clients be dead at this point?

Thin clients continue to exist in 2021, having somehow survived a near-constant series of radical shifts in the tech sector during the last two decades. In fact, by some estimates, the market for thin client solutions continues to grow, expected to reach $B1.32 in revenue by the middle of the decade.

Thin clients are less costly than PC’s and they last longer. They are also “greener” and arguably more secure. Thin clients are no longer just for task-based workers. They can support 4K monitors and multiple screens, run high-end graphical applications like CAD, and most recently can support a wide variety of unified communications via offloading video and audio.

Thin clients almost never break, they don’t need patching anywhere as much as a laptop might, and when it comes to endpoint management, they just work.  Situated on desks and working for years a thin client will never need a “hardware refresh”, simply allowing employees easy access to remote applications and data.

Cloud Technology Requires More From Thin Clients

After years of Citrix dominating the server-based computing market, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) has seen significant growth in the last 10 years, supported and fueled by Citrix, VMware, Amazon AWS and most recently Microsoft WVD. This uptick in innovation and competition, coupled with a move to the cloud (in the form of desktop as a service (DaaS)) means that today, the once “set it and forget it” infrastructure used for VDI is in a constant state of change.

The need to work from home, and cloud technology, have driven more organizations to move their virtualized desktops to the cloud and support a wider, more diverse set of applications. Unified communications with Zoom and MS Teams for example, is now mandatory in many workspaces, including virtualized and cloud delivered ones. With more people working from home, the sheer numbers of applications, and application types, have also increased. CAD applications and multimedia can all be delivered from VDI and DaaS.

As the 4 key vendors continue to innovate and reduce the cost of DaaS, the endpoint also needs to be kept up to date. Something that thin clients were not designed to do.

Thin Client Upgrades | IGEL OS

You don’t need to buy a 2021 thin client to support a 2021 cloud environment. IGEL OS is a simple, yet effective upgrade for your thin client computing. IGEL OS is more than software, it’s an operating system that takes your thin client, (or any device for that matter),  and gives it the muscle for today’s world of cloud workspaces and unified communications without needing to replace the hardware.

Benefits of IGEL OS

• Always up to date with the latest VDI/DaaS clients
• Top security
• Simple to deploy and manage
• Ability to instantly enable and accelerate the move to the cloud
• Over 100 IGEL Ready integrated technologies
• support for any x86-64 endpoint
• Centralized management
• Consistent user experience

IGEL OS enables VDI and cloud workspaces solutions that can be easily tailored to businesses of all sizes. For more information on IGEL OS, or to see the full range of our product lineup, learn more about IGEL today.

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That’s a lot to manage for IT Operations teams. Add to that, with every patch deployed, comes a risk. A risk that something will break. An application that won’t launch, an operating system or service that won’t boot. Then you have the challenge of how you deploy that patch. Did it deploy? Did reach every employee’ home network? How big was the patch? When did it deploy and to how many? How long does the patch process take? Is the endpoint capable of installing the patch? How much downtime will the employee experience? If something does break, can you rollback? The list goes on…

It’s worth considering that while patching is no doubt an important task, what is the real opportunity cost of patching? Just imagine what we could achieve if we didn’t need to spend the time testing, deploying and worrying about what should be such a simple task.

Patching is About IT Operations, Not Security

It’s worth considering that patching is less about security and more about IT Operations. As I meet with customers Endpoint Security continues to come into every conversation, but when you dig a little deeper, you find that the challenge many face is not one of security but the operational work involved.

For those insistent on buying high cost, fast depreciating, expensive to support and difficult to update endpoints, solutions from Microsoft, VMware, Ivanti and others can certainly help patch and update endpoints, even those that sit within the home office.

Microsoft’s Intune and work on Endpoint Manager demonstrates how PC lifecycle management tools are being combined with modern device management. Thanks to the acquisition of Airwatch and other technologies, VMware’s market-leading solution Workspace One continues to extend the ability to manage more than just Windows devices remotely. And with the recent news that Ivanti is due to acquire MobileIron, coupled with their existing well-known Landesk solutions, the UEM market can help overcome many of the challenges discussed.

Remember VDI and the Promise of DaaS

VDI has been used to help organizations deploy applications and desktops using virtualization technologies from Citrix and VMware for over 20 years. Historically used for remote workers over low bandwidth connections or frequently deployed to help with business acquisitions and mergers, desktop virtualization has been a steady but stable technology choice for some organizations and use cases. At one point, VDI was considered as the most cost-effective way of deploying end-user computing. Today, with more matured technology and the cloud, I would argue that this is more true than ever!

However, with the recent rise in WFH, the need to rapidly deploy and support desktops and applications to a remote workforce has become business critical. VDI and DaaS have proven themselves during the pandemic for many organizations.

VDI / DaaS – Reducing the Operational Cost of Patching

But this virtualized and centralized desktop platform doesn’t just help with remote work, it significantly reduces IT operational cost required to patch and update Windows desktops. Hosting Windows in the datacenter means you no longer need to worry about the delivery of the patch, the size, its impact on the applications, the user or the endpoint. Everything is done once, centrally and in a controlled manner. When ready, it is simply activated, ready for the next employee to connect.

Customers who use VDI and DaaS don’t spend hours worrying about patching. They utilize technologies like Machine creation services and single image management to test and deploy once and yet at scale. They don’t worry about the next Windows update, nor are they bothered whether an employee is sat in the office or working from home. Many of our customers will also tell you they don’t worry about the endpoint…

Of course, people still need an edge device, but in the world of VDI/DaaS, that edge device doesn’t need to place a burden on IT operations… That device could be a Linux OS – easily managed, more secure and more cost-effective. But that is a different story; one that can be found here.

For now though, when you read of the next ransomware attack or see the next Patch Tuesday update, take time to consider whether the attack utilized a known vulnerability, whether that vulnerability could of been patched and how much easier and operationally efficient it could of been if the employee was instead using a virtualized desktop. Think of all the other things your IT operations staff cloud be doing for your company!

Image licensed from Adobe Stock.

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